Posts Tagged ‘food’
food, gluten-free, recipes
In Fish / Seafood on March 1, 2010 at pm
I caught 4 fish ice fishing at the 2010 Winterlude Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They were all brook trout weighing between 1/2 to 1 lb each. I steamed the largest fish whole (link to recipe here), pan fried the smallest one until the skin was crispy, and baked the last two small fish in parchment. Baking fish en papillote steams the fish in its own juices along with vegetables in a parchment paper envelope. This is also called fish al cartoccio. The best part about this cooking method is the easy clean up. It’s quick, easy, and very healthy. The fish comes out very moist and sometimes I use this method just to cook my vegetables alone. This is great for entertaining too.
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food, recipes
In Other Desserts on February 28, 2010 at pm
I was invited to a friend’s house for a spontaneous weeknight dinner with very short notice. So the challenge was to use ingredients that I already had to make dessert in under an hour. Luckily I had a bag of Kraft Jet Puffed marshmallows leftover from making fondant (recipe here) and I almost always have a box of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereal because I love Rice Krispies squares so much. Whenever I make them, I eat them until my mouth hurts…. and then I eat some more.
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Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes, vegan, vegetarian
In Asian, Soups, Soups and Salads on February 27, 2010 at pm
Hot and sour soup originated in Szechuan, a region in China. It’s one of my sister’s favourite foods and unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to find a restaurant that serves a truly authentic (and delicious) hot and sour soup. Luckily, it’s very easy to make at home. My family loves it when I make this soup and they can’t get enough of it. 🙂 You could easily make this a vegetarian or vegan soup by omitting the pork and egg, and by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
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Asian food, food, gluten-free, recipes, Thai food, vegan, vegetarian
In Other Asian Foods on February 26, 2010 at pm
Thai red curry is spicier than yellow curry but milder than the green (link to my green curry recipe here). These are incredibly easy to make and like Chinese stir fries, you can pretty much throw in any meat and/or vegetables that you happen to have around. I like to make these with chicken and at least 2 types of differently coloured vegetables. Personally, my favourite thing to put into a thai red curry is fresh Japanese enoki mushrooms. This curry is great when made to be vegetarian/vegan too.
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food, recipes
In Pasta, Rice, and Doughs on February 25, 2010 at pm
A very nice coworker of mine gave me her pizza stone. It totally made my week 🙂 So for my first time using a pizza stone, I decided to make a “gourmet” pizza. If you don’t have a pizza stone, see the post here for baking instructions using metal pizza pans (link here).
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Chinese food, food, recipes
In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Asian, Breads, Breakfast, Desserts, How-To, Main Course on February 24, 2010 at pm
I received a comment asking for pictures of my steaming equipment and technique. So here I show you how I steam food, I discuss other methods of steaming, and I go into detail about the steaming equipment that you’ll need for each method.
Steaming food is very commonly done in Chinese cooking. It’s a very healthy way of cooking as it maintains a lot of the nutrients in vegetables and reduces the amount of oil that you use. It results in tender veggies and moist and juicy meats. I steam cook vegetables, dumplings, whole chickens and fish, pork spareribs, a specific Chinese egg dish, etc. (You can do a search for some of these recipes on my website.)
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food, recipes
In Cupcakes on February 24, 2010 at pm
These are the best cupcakes I’ve ever made or eaten. The cheesecake has the perfect texture/density and the toppings have the perfect touch of sweetness. I don’t love cheesecake but I adore these cheesecake cupcakes. I made them for a bbq in the summer and people Loved them. I made them again recently for Ed’s mom’s birthday and they were a huge hit with them too. I ended up making these for my dad’s birthday shortly after that. It takes some time to make and needs to be refrigerated before serving, but it’s really really simple and definitely worth it.
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Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes
In Seafood on February 23, 2010 at pm
In Chinese cooking, white fish are often steamed whole (in restaurants and in peoples’ homes). Steaming fish until it’s Just cooked is incredibly easy, healthy, and gives you a Very moist fish. It’s my favourite way to eat fish. By the way, the cheeks are the best part of the fish so you should definitely try it if you haven’t already.
Note that the fish in the picture below is missing its head. Normally the fish is steamed whole, but when I caught this fish ice fishing at the Winterlude Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, the people running the event gutted the fish and removed the head.
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Chinese food, food, recipes
In Meat and Eggs on February 22, 2010 at pm
Hoisin sauce is a very popular Chinese sauce that goes really well with chicken, pork, or beef. It is also the dipping sauce for peking duck and deep fried dough sticks wrapped in rice noodle. I use it on baked pork ribs more than anything else. Although marinating the ribs makes the meat more flavourful, the hoisin sauce has enough flavour that you really don’t have to. So this is the perfect quick and ridiculously easy meal that doesn’t require any pre-planning and only requires 2 ingredients. I make this often for guests too, because I’ve yet to meet someone who didn’t like them. If you don’t like/eat pork, hoisin baked chicken is really good too. When asked what he wanted me to make for Valentine’s Day dinner, 2011, Ed requested these hoisin ribs. 🙂
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food, gluten-free, recipes, vegetarian
In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Sides and Sauces on February 21, 2010 at pm
Ed loves twice baked potatoes. Back when I had more time on my hands, I often made these with mini potatoes for parties or pot lucks. It took a lot of work but people really loved them. They were so cute and so easy to eat. Recently, I made miniature twice baked potatoes (photo below) for a miniature bbq lunch.
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food, gluten-free, Indian, recipes, vegan, vegetarian
In Indian on February 20, 2010 at pm
I rarely eat cauliflower because I find it so tasteless. When a creamy, cheesy, cauliflower gratin that I made still wasn’t enough to change my mind, I gave up on this vegetable for a long time. But I recently read about the nutrition and health benefits of cauliflower, so I thought it was time to give it another chance. While searching for interesting ways to cook it, I found aloo gobi, an Indian spiced potato and cauliflower dish. It was perfect because I just happened to be binge-cooking indian this month. This dish still wasn’t enough to make me crave cauliflower, but it’s a great side to a curry meat dish (and Ed loved it), so I’ll definitely make it again. See here for tips on how to get the most flavour out of your Indian spices.
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food, recipes, vegetarian
In Soups and Salads on February 19, 2010 at pm
I love cream of mushroom soup. Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup is what I turn to whenever I’m sick. I received Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for my birthday and knew that her mushroom soup would be among the first recipes that I would try. This is more sophisticated than canned mushroom soup 😉 but my mushroom cream sauce (adapted from Julia Child’s basic cream sauce recipe) tastes more like the canned soup and is Much less time consuming to make – if that’s what you’re looking for, the link is here.
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Cooking with Alison 